I Am Legend (Dec 07)

Well - the initial reaction when the credits started to roll was stunned silence - but not because it was bad, it was just really not what the previews portrayed it to be.

Will Smith was great - but I'm a huge fan so I'm probably bias. He has a great range of acting and it's not just the witty sarcasm you usually get from him. It is literally a movie about a man who is alone. You get flashbacks of what happened leading up to the cause of the epidemic to the quarantine of Manhattan to the literal end of everything he knew.

'This is ground zero. This is my station. I'm not going to let this happen.'

Lt. Colonel Robert Nevall was being heralded as the man that would cure the KV virus - a strain of the measles that was used to CURE CANCER - however, it mutated into rabies like symptoms and not only killed 5.4 billion people world wide when it jumped to airborne, it left 12.4 million that were immune subjected to the remaining millions that turned into light sensitive, extremely violent, cannibalistic underground 'dark seekers' who have regressed to well past anything resembling or acting on a human level.

1001 days after the outbreak, Robert Nevall, alone, continues his research to cure the KV virus. But he's really not...alone.

It wasn't what I 'thought' it was going to be, but really it was an extremely GOOD movie. I'd give it a solid 8 out of 10. It's a solid movie, a teeny slow in the beginning and the ending is a little weak - there wasn't a strong climax, at least that I was expecting but overall I'd watch it again and probably buy the dvd.

77 million opening sales - best ever in December.

Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- ``I Am Legend,'' the science-fiction thriller from Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. studio starring Will Smith, turned in the best-ever December opening weekend with $76.5 million of domestic box-office sales.
New releases ``Alvin and the Chipmunks'' from News Corp.'s Fox opened in second place with $45 million, box-office tracker Media By Numbers LLC said today in a statement. Time Warner's ``Golden Compass,'' last weekend's No. 1 movie, dropped to third with $9.03 million in sales, while Walt Disney Co.'s ``Enchanted'' fell to fourth from second with $6 million.
Time Warner scored for a second-straight week with a movie debuting at No. 1 in U.S. and Canadian theaters, following the Dec. 7 release of ``The Golden Compass.'' As of Dec. 14, the world's largest media company had $1.7 billion in box-office sales this year, the most among its competitors, according to researcher Box Office Mojo LLC.
``Will Smith certainly delivered,'' Paul Dergarabedian, president of Encino, California-based Media by Numbers, said in an interview. ``No matter what he's in, whether he's a guy who's down on his luck, or a guy who's saving the world, he can open a movie.''
Smith's Best Sales
The film's debut topped previous December champions, including the $72.6 million that ``Lord of the Rings: Return of the King'' collected in December 2003 and the $65.5 million that ``The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'' took home in December 2005.
The ticket sales also marked a personal best for Smith, who portrays one of the last humans to survive a virus that turns people into flesh-eating monsters. It exceeded by almost half the $52.2 million that ``I, Robot,'' garnered during its opening weekend in July 2004 and the $52.1 million of ``Men in Black 2'' in July 2002. The haul easily topped the $26.5 million from ``The Pursuit of Happyness,'' which opened at No. 1 this weekend last year.
For the film industry, the weekend was the first in six in which box-office sales topped prior-year levels, Dergarabedian said. Sales for the top 12 films rose 39 percent this weekend to $153.6 million, from a year earlier, according to Media By Numbers.
Holiday Releases
``Considering we had many weeks of down-trending box office, this is exactly the boost that we needed,'' he said. Next weekend -- the last before Christmas -- may see additional momentum with the opening of ``Charlie Wilson's War,'' ``Sweeney Todd'' and ``Walk Hard,'' he said.
``Christmas weekend should be very good with all of this product entering the marketplace,'' he said.
In ``I Am Legend,'' Smith works on a cure during the day and hides from the demons in a barricaded New York townhouse at night.
Ticket sales for the movie beat the $51.5 million estimate of Burbank, California-based Box Office Mojo. As of Dec. 14, ``I Am Legend'' received lukewarm response, with 65 positive reviews out of 110 tracked by RottenTomatoes.com.
``Alvin and the Chipmunks,'' based on the 1980s cartoon series, features a computer-animated version of the high-pitched singing trio.
`The Golden Compass'
The movie received poor reviews, with New York Post's Lou Lumenick writing, ``For adults, it's like being hit over the head with a mallet every 10 seconds for 90 minutes. Two days later, I still had a headache.''
Luckily, children will drive ticket sales, Dergarabedian said. ```Alvin and the Chipmunks' will do very, very well,'' he said. ``It's irresistible to kids.''
``The Golden Compass,'' made for about $150 million by Time Warner's New Line Cinema, missed the $35.4 million opening weekend estimate of Hollywood Stock Exchange.com, where participants bet play money on a film's performance. The film tells the story of a young girl who uses a unique ability to discern truth in a cosmic battle over free will.
``It didn't have that built-in fun factor that a `Narnia' or a `Lord of the Rings' has,'' Dergarabedian said. ``Something about that movie didn't compel audiences to go out in large numbers.''
`No Country for Old Men'
Fourth place's ``Enchanted'' stars Amy Adams as a princess banished from her fantasy world to modern New York. The film has taken in $92.3 million since its release Nov. 21. Susan Sarandon co-stars as the evil queen who engineers her departure.
``No Country for Old Men,'' with $3 million for Disney's Miramax studio, ranked fifth.

so then , I'm guessing .. its worth the 50 bucks to go see ? o.o

I thought it was a good movie. Now that I have seen it I'd say I could have waited for the DVD. I agree with Roz that Wil Smith is turning out to be a very good actor. Unlike Roz, it was what I expected. Its a reverse "Cast Away" where rather than the main character being removed from civilization, civilization gets removed from him. I thought the movie really did a good job showing the odd behavior he sometimes experienced while dealing with the fact that he was all alone for such a long period of time. What I didn't like about it was the way it turned from "Cast Away" to "Signs". Don't want to give anything away to people that haven't seen it so I will leave it at that for now. Overall, I'm gonna agree with Roz and give it an 8 out of 10, but it is not (IMO) a movie that needs to be seen on the big screen.

Exactly, Mylec. The ending was unexpected and not properly established. A promising twist that didn't fulfill expectations.

I heard it was scary, so we went ot see Alvin and the Chipmunks.
best movie ever imo.

i'm still annoyed that they changed the chipmunk image to a more thuglike one. ok, so it's probably not quite that bad in the movie itself, but the posters i've seen make me wonder if alvin's concealing a weapon in that hoodie. and the sunglasses... are they stoned, or what?

haha I liek that guy from MY name is Earl .. forgot his name Only reason I wanna see~! lol

ok well if we have the extra cash then will take the hubby if not no worries I guess. Would be different is the base theater was nice enough we could go see it there I mean couple bucks is nothing if the film isnt all that great but I HATE the theaters on base here /cry

SPOILER ---
















































i think had they spent a few more minutes filling out the story, and a few more hours on more believable CG, this movie would have been worth my $13.

#1 - How did this virus get to be airborne?

#2 - I would like to have seen the deterioration from human to mindless creature. It goes from nothing to 3 years later, and no in-the-middle parts.

#3 - i would have liked to seen the first cured 'infected' come around and possibly be able to share some experience with what it was like being infected.

#4 - a virus being able to mutate skeletal structure to resemble that of a snake's 'unhinjing jaw' was lame to be honest. it took away a huge chunk of the 'human gone wild' aspect for me. it was more like an alien than an infected human.

#5 - how did the uninfected colony use the cure? did they even get to?

#6 - why didn't he leave the grenade outside and crawl in the hole with the chick and kid? self-sacrifice that was absolutely pointless and perfectly avoidable.


There's just too many unanswered, unfinished questions in the story that bothered me. Movies that require me to 'use my imagination' is a waste of time and money - I can use my imagination for free - at home, why on earth would I go to a theater, pay $13 for tickets, and $8 for popcorn and soda, to do it ?

Saw this today, and thought it was much better than I expected. While CGI is a bit overused, imo, these days...in this case I thought it was appropriate.

The alternate ending is on themoviespoiler.com. I'm glad they went with what was released in the theaters.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VSA0rAiKfI&eurl=http://www.themoviespoiler.com/Spoilers/iamlegendALT.html

Yea, that would have made for a pretty cheesy ending. I was happy with the one they chose.